My parents were here for the holiday weekend, which was really nice. We met up with our realtor friend who took them out to look at some houses so they could get a feel for neighborhoods here. Their house in Mississippi is on the market right now, and the plan is that they’ll move up here as soon as it sells. Of course, the market in Mississippi kinda sucks right now, so we don’t really know how long that’ll take. (Even though they have a really gorgeous house in a nice neighborhood. Seriously. Any of y’all need to buy a house in Ridgeland? Let me know!)

When they weren’t neighborhood-hunting, they spent most of their time making sure that their only grandchild was ridiculously indulged.

I cannot begin to tell you how much this picture makes me laugh. My dad looks like Jackie O. gone horribly wrong.

Then my mom joined in, but by that time, Catie had chocolate, and no longer cared about the camera.

Grandparents: giving kids sugar at bedtime since the dawn of time.

Since my folks had flown up, my brother and sister also drove over from Charlotte for the weekend too. Always nice to have everybody around, even though it does get a little loud and crazy. But we had a great time. Saturday was gorgeous here, we fired up the grill and ate outside on the deck, and it was absolutely lovely. I didn’t even take any pictures of that because I was too busy enjoying it.

Everybody left on Sunday, and we went swimming with Cat and Elizabeth that afternoon as a distraction. It worked, Catie was definitely less sad than usual about everybody leaving since we had other fun stuff on the agenda.

It was also nice that they left on Sunday, since it gave us Monday/Labor Day to sort of rest and recuperate before starting the week again. I feel like that after every family vacation or get-together; you kind of need a day of downtime before getting back to the grind.

And if that day involves watching movies and eating a banana while wearing a giraffe hat? Well, then, all the better.